Álvaro Parente

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Álvaro Parente
Nationality	Portuguese
Date of Birth	October 4, 1984 (1984-10-04) (age 23)
Place of Birth	Porto (Portugal)
2008 GP2 Series
Debut season	2008
Current team	Super Nova Racing
Car No.	8
Starts	6
Wins	1
Poles	0
Fastest laps	1
Previous series
2001-2002 2003 2004-2005 2006-2007	Spanish F3 Championship F3 Euroseries Championship British F3 Championship World Series by Renault
Championship titles
2005 2007	British F3 Champion World Series by Renault

Álvaro Parente (born October 4, 1984) is a Portuguese racecar driver. Parente's father was also a racer.

Contents 1 Career 2 Racing record 2.1 Career summary 2.2 GP2 Series record 2.3 A1 Grand Prix record 3 Racing career 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Career

After winning the Karting European Junior Championship in 1998, Parente made his debut in auto racing in 2001 at the age of 16, driving in the Spanish F3 Championship. In the following year, he was integrated into the Team Portugal project and scored a win on his way to 4th place in the series.

Parente than began a more international career in 2003, moving to the F3 Euroseries with Team Ghinzani, but the Mugen-Honda engine proved to be inferior to the Mercedes and he scored a single point. He did better with one-off entries in Italian Formula 3 and at Spa in a round of the British Formula 3 Championship, his first association with Carlin Motorsport, which was repeated that year in the Macau Grand Prix.

This brief contact paved the way for a contract with Carlin for the 2004 season, where he took part in the British series, scoring another win and finishing 7th in the championship standings. He also took part in Marlboro Masters and at Macau, but in the former the Mugen-Honda could not take the fight to the Mercedes drivers and in the latter he was taken out in the first lap.

Parente stayed in the British Formula 3 for another season, and his experience helped him to win the championship with four races to go, scoring a total of 11 wins. This result made him the natural candidate to represent A1 Team Portugal for the new A1 Grand Prix series.

For 2006, Parente joined the World Series by Renault with the Victory Engineering team, and achieved his first win at Istanbul in only his fifth race in the category. He took two further wins at the Nürburgring and Circuit de Catalunya to finish fifth in the final standings. He had hoped to progress onto the GP2 Series in 2007, but a lack of sponsorship scuppered his plans. He did, however, return to the World Series with the French Tech 1 Racing team, having signed a contract on the eve of the first pre-season test.^[1]

During the 2007 season Parente took five podium finishes, including two race victories at Monaco and Spa, and was crowned World Series by Renault champion at the final round in Barcelona on October 27.^[2]

As a prize for winning the World Series, Parente has tested for the Renault F1 team on January 17, 2008, at Jerez de la Frontera.^[3] For 2008 Parente will race with the Super Nova Racing team in the GP2 Series,^[4] widely regarded as the primary feeder series to Formula One.

Alvaro Parente made a stunning start to his GP2 career in the opening round of the season at the Circuit de Catalunya, Parente won the feature race making him the first Portugese driver to win in GP2 Series.^[5] Alvaro Parente led from start to finish, to claim victory ahead of Senna and Zuber.

Super Nova team nicknamed Parente as ‘Chachi’, due to his likeness to the famous character in Happy Days^[6]

[edit] Racing record

[edit] Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Car No.	Races	Wins	Poles	Points	Final Placing
2001	Spanish F3 Championship	G-Tec	10	9	0	0	50	12th
		E.V. Racing	2
2002	Spanish F3 Championship	Racing Engineering	1	13	1	1	139	4th
2003	F3 Euroseries Championship	Team Ghinzani	17	19	0	0	1	25th
2003	Italian F3 Championship	Team Ghinzani	25	2	1	1	34	9th
2003	Masters of Formula 3	Team Ghinzani		1	0	0	N/A	22th
2003	F3 Macau Grand Prix[7]	Carlin Motorsport		1	0	0	N/A	DNF
2003	F3 Korea Super Prix[8]	Carlin Motorsport		1	0	0	N/A	10th
2003	British F3 Championship	Carlin Motorsport	3	2	0	0	7	22th
2004	British F3 Championship	Carlin Motorsport	2	24	1	2	137	7th
2004	Masters of Formula 3	Carlin Motorsport		1	0	0	N/A	34th
2004	F3 European Cup[9]	Carlin Motorsport		1	0	0	N/A	8th
2004	F3 Macau Grand Prix[10]	Carlin Motorsport		1	0	0	N/A	DNF
2005	British F3 Championship	Carlin Motorsport	14	18	11	9	289	1st
2005-06	A1 Grand Prix	Portugal	POR	20	0	0	66	9th
2006	World Series by Renault	Victory Engineering	16	15	3	0	94	5th
2006-07	A1 Grand Prix	Portugal	POR	6	0	0	10	17th
2007	World Series by Renault	Tech 1 Racing	32	17	2	2	129	1st
2008	GP2 Series	Super Nova Racing	8	6	1	0	19	4th*

[edit] GP2 Series record

Year	Team	ESP		TUR		MON		FRA		UK		GER		HUN		EUR		BEL		ITA		Pos	Pts
		fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr
2008	Super Nova Racing	1	7	Ret	8	5	3															4th*	19*

* Season in progress.

[edit] A1 Grand Prix record

Year	Team	NLD		CZE		CHN		MYS		IDN		NZL		AUS		RSA		MEX		CHN		GBR		Pos	Pts
		spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea
2006-07	Portugal															8	5	14	7			11	11	17th	10
Year	Team	UK		GER		POR		AUS		MYS		UAE		RSA		IDN		MEX		USA		CHN		Pos	Pts
		spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea	spr	fea
2005-06	Portugal	8	Ret	Ret	11	6	5	2	7	9	18	8	4	8	3	19	Ret	Ret	10	3	4			9th	66

[edit] Racing career

• 1998 - Karting European Championship, Champion
• 2001 - Spanish F3, 12th place
• 2002 - Spanish F3, 4th place
• 2003 - F3 Euroseries, 25th place (also one-offs in Italian F3 and British F3)
• 2004 - British F3 Championship, 7th place (also Macau GP and Marlboro Masters)
• 2005 - British F3 Championship, Champion (also Marlboro Masters); A1 Grand Prix with A1 Team Portugal
• 2006 - World Series by Renault with Victory Engineering, 5th Place
• 2007 - World Series by Renault with Tech 1 Racing, Champion
• 2008 - GP2 Series with Super Nova Racing Team

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official web site
• Alvaro Parente career statistics at Driver Database

Sporting positions
Preceded by Nelson Angelo Piquet	British Formula Three Champion 2005	Succeeded by Mike Conway
Preceded by Alx Danielsson	World Series by Renault Champion 2007	Succeeded by Incumbent